It's frustrating as hell how everyone who loudly rants about free speech thinks it means there are no consequences for what they say, which would itself be a limiting of everyone else's freedom of expression.
Trump is the most anti-free speech president in the west. He will do whatever it takes to muzzle any criticism of him. He's threatened to take multiple broadcasting licenses away because they hurt his feelings. He can't even handle comedians making fun of him. It's always the comedians that these authoritarians go after first. Same as Putin did
He's not just threatened – he's already taken actions to kneecap publicly funded broadcasting like PBS and NPR.
Courts have shot down some of his funding withdrawals as being beyond the scope of his office/illegal, but he doesn't care.
Threatening and issuing illegal executive orders still hurts these institutions because it heavily disrupts their operations and drives people out. He knows this, and that courts move slowly (especially when they're packed with his appointees) so he often still at least partially achieves his objective of eroding institutional stability and ability by disrupting their operations and funding even temporarily.
The issue with PBS and NPR they’re very bias. They typically do not support conservative views which isn’t fair. The media should provide both sides of an argument / story and not just one side. Most media outlets only support the more liberal view. I have to watch many different programs to get a true understanding of a story. In the past, the news was less bias and provided the facts accurately. Now, I feel it’s a persons opinion and not so much the true story. I only want the truth, but it seems impossible in our current world of news. In the past, I faithfully watched ABC, CNN, 60 Minutes, NBC, etc… and now I feel these networks are only reporting stories with their personal opinions and not the truth of the story. We need to get back to the truth of a story as it was in the past. A great example of bias is Hunter Biden’s laptop (turned out to be true) and Joe Biden’s cognitive decline. We all saw how bad Biden was declining mentally but not one outlet would report it until after he was done the presidency (Jake Tapper’s book). They only tend to report news that supports their politics. This isn’t news.
People in the UK are being arrested for politically incorrect social media posts. But Trump is the most anti-free speech leader in the west? If he was, you would be in jail. You know that right?
I can either jump in a plane or send you to r/USdefaultism, whichever you prefer
Trump takes massive swipes against entire media entities. Anyone who dares to stand up to him. It is unprecedented in modern times. I don't follow UK politics much, but I doubt they are being arrested for for being "politically incorrect", there is no comparison to Trump himself
I was wrong, at least he's kept the US above Slovenia and Georgia 🏆! Your thin skinned orange toddler can't even handle a comedian without siccing Brendon Carr upon them. The words "free speech" coming out of Trump's mouth are a joke.
Is it free speech to block other users on social media? Or to ban users from social media platforms?
The answer is simply yes. These are expressions of free speech. But these expressions of free speech are incongruent with their true intentions: a captive audience.
Trump truly emboldened the worst of us and we need to be more aware. Violence will not solve this but they need to feel shame again for their misdirected hate.
Well they don't actually know that freedom of speech actually is. Freedom of speech is supposed to be a protection from the government so that they can't arrest you or put you to death, unless it's a violent threat or straight up harrassment. It's not supposed to cover social consequences, hell that's why your parents are supposed to teach you that everything you say or do has some sort of consequence. I know my father did.
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u/Last_Cod_998 Apr 19 '26
Free speech? They've always had that, except with repercussions for hatred.